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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

FTC slams Equifax as Senate joins House inquiry into credit bureaus' data broker cousins | Ed Mierzwinski

This week the FTC ordered the massive credit bureau Equifax to disgorge $393,000 in profits and its customer, Direct Lending Source, to pay a $1.2 million civil penalty for selling lists of credit reports for illegal marketing purposes. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller has announced his own investigation into the practice of unregulated data brokers, the close cousins of the credit bureaus that are already the subject of a bi-partisan House inquiry.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

State Attorneys General Oppose Payday Lender Protection Bill In Congress | Ed Mierzwinski

Last week a bi-partisan group of 41 state Attorneys General announced their joint opposition to misguided legislation to take both the CFPB and the states off the payday lender crime beat. Nevertheless, the payday lenders continue to invest in the political process.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

Consumers want "Do not track" privacy right but powerful firms fight back | Ed Mierzwinski

A new study shows that web surfers want an easy-to-use Do-Not-Track right to stop online tracking and collection of information about their web choices. But a powerful coalition of web advertisers and web publishers is fighting back, here and abroad, and it claims that such targeted advertising is what makes the Internet "free."

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Media Hit | Financial Reform

JPMorgan Chase is sued in 2008 Bear Stearns mortgage case

“You can make a lot of money doing corporate crime and unfortunately the risks are very low, as seen by how few people have gone to jail and how little money has been returned to people harmed in the fiscal crisis,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director for advocacy group U.S. PIRG.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

new consumer group, Consumers Count, to fight for arbitration reform | Ed Mierzwinski

Today, consumerscount.org launched as a website using "crowdsourcing" to help consumers band together to fight back when they have same complaint against the same company, but are limited by forced arbitration clauses and restrictions on class action rights from obtaining redress. At least until the CFPB bans forced arbitration, we need innovative ideas like consumerscount.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Budget, Democracy, Tax

Release of New Report: Loopholes for Sale

A new report released Wednesday, March 21 by U.S. PIRG and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) found that thirty unusually aggressive tax dodging corporations have made campaign contributions to 524 (98 percent) sitting members of Congress, and disproportionately to the leadership of both parties and to key committee members. The report, Loopholes for Sale: Campaign Contributions by Corporate Tax Dodgers, examines campaign contributions made by a total of 280 profitable Fortune 500 companies in 2006, 2008, 2010 and to date in 2012.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Budget

Ryan Budget a Windfall for Special Interests, Devastating to Public Priorities

While U.S. PIRG recognizes the need to address the nation’s deficit, Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan proposes a windfall for corporate tax dodgers, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies, and the oil industry while slapping the public with harmful cuts to public priorities like Pell Grants and public transportation.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Ryan Budget Devastating to Pell, Windfall for Special Interests

Chairman Ryan's proposal recommends slashing Pell Grants which help more than 9 million students pay for college at a time of rising college costs, tight family finances and a job market that increasingly requires post-secondary education.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Budget

Report Card Ranks 50 States on Transparency of Spending

In Following the Money 2012: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data, researchers at the United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) graded all 50 states on how well they provide online access to information about government spending. States were given “A” to “F” grades based on the characteristics of the online transparency systems they have created to provide information on contracts, subsidies and spending at quasi-public agencies.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Higher Ed

Students To Congress: Don’t Double Student Debt Rates

Washington, D.C. – With the student loan interest rate about to double this July for almost 8 million loan borrowers, US PIRG and coalition partners deliver over 130,000 letters to Congress urging a different plan.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

Today, CFPB to announce overdraft fee investigation, unveil "penalty box" disclosure, possibly end $39 lattes. | Ed Mierzwinski

At a news conference in NYC today, Director Richard Cordray of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will announce a major investigation of bank overdraft fee practices and propose a model "penalty box" disclosure to appear on bank statements. The investigation could end the $39 latte-- $4 bucks for the coffee, $35 for the debit card overdraft fee.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

Consumer news update, some stories I've been following | Ed Mierzwinski

Just a summary of some of what I think are the important consumer news stories of the last week or so, in case you missed any of them.

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

Rep. Keith Ellison: Opposing the CFPB is "nonsense" | Ed Mierzwinski

In less than two minutes, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison gives a detailed history of the financial crisis and an impassioned defense of the CFPB, calling claims of its Congressional detractors "nonsense." Youtube excerpt from his opening statement at yesterday's House Financial Services Committee's oversight subcommittee hearing on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's budget. Ellison: "If your business model is not about bilking consumers,  you have nothing to worry about from the CFPB. But..."

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

CFPB's Cordray testifies today in House FSC | Ed Mierzwinski

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rich Cordray -- recess appointed by the president on January 4, continues his regular appearances before the Congress by testifying on the CFPB's budget (his written testimony (88 pages))  today before the House Financial Services Committee's oversight subcommittee at 10am Eastern. It should be webcast live at that link. Nearly all majority members of FSC oppose the CFPB's independent budget, even though all other bank regulators also have an independent budget, so we will see how it goes today.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

We Tell the Financial Regulators: Don’t Let Big Banks Make Taxpayer-Backed Bets | Ed Mierzwinski

Last night, U.S. PIRG and the AFL-CIO joined Americans for Financial Reform in a detailed comment letter urging issuance of a strong Volcker rule. It's a 72-page pdf comment letter that basically comes down to this: We tell the financial regulators: don’t let big banks make taxpayer-backed bets.

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